Billy Joel shares new song ‘Turn The Lights Back On’
Billy Joel has shared ‘Turn The Lights Back On’, marking his first new song from the New Yorker in almost 20 years.
The singer-songwriter’s first release since 2007 has seen him collaborate with Grammy-nominated songwriter Freddy Wexler, who produced the song. Wayne Hector and Arthur Bacon were also involved in the creative process for ‘Turn The Lights Back On’.
The track was officially announced by Joel last week, but he has been hinting towards this moment for some time on social media. In one video, shared on TikTok, he said: “I have good news, I have bad news, I’ll give you the bad news first: we don’t have anything new to play for you. The good news is you don’t have to sit through something you have no idea what it is. Although… we got a little something we’re working on you might hear sometime.”
Currently, ‘Turn The Lights Back On’ looks to be a stand-alone single from Joel, who has no plans to release another studio album. His last traditional pop record was 1993’s River of Dreams, although Joel did share the classical composition Fantasies & Delusions in 2001, which was played on by Hyung-ki Joo.
On his decision to retire from songwriting, Joel once told Variety: “When I stopped writing songs — it was time. I couldn’t be as good as I wanted and that was driving me crazy. I was driving my loved ones crazy. I thought this is ridiculous. So I stopped. But the performing, what else am I going to do?”
Joel will be performing ‘Turn The Lights Back On’ for the first time at the Grammys on February 4th at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Considering his illustrious history with the Recording Academy, having been nominated 23 times previously and winning five awards, it’s a fitting place for Joel to unveil his grand return.
Meanwhile, Trevor Noah was recently confirmed to host the 2024 edition of the Grammys. The upcoming ceremony will mark the fourth consecutive year that he will be in charge of presenting the prestigious event.
Noah made the announcement on his podcast. He told listeners, “I think it’s also important to acknowledge something, I’m hosting the Grammy’s. I’m excited about that, yeah, it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy the Grammys because I get to watch the show in person and then experience and comment on it in person while it is happening.”
Listen to ‘Turn The Lights Back On’ below.
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